SUNY Potsdam radio station gunning for MTVU Woodie Award

POTSDAM - SUNY Potsdams on-campus radio station, 90.3 WAIH The Way, is in the running for an MTVU Woodie Award, and students involved with the station are asking north country residents to help them win.

For the second consecutive year, the station received enough award nominations to place it in the top 25 in the contest. SUNY Potsdam is smallest school of any station in the running, which includes stations from the Rochester Institute of Technology and New York University.

SUNY Potsdam junior and The Way General Manager Daniel Laskaris commended the community for their support in getting the station into the top 25.

We have student life on campus, lots of people in the Potsdam community and strong alumni support and all that combines to really help us, Mr. Laskaris said. Hopefully with the support of the north country we can come out and win this.

The Woodies are the annual music awards for MTVU, the college division of the music-oriented TV station MTV. The award ceremony will be held March 17 in Austin, Texas.

Students and residents can vote for the station on MTVUs website, www.mtv.com/ontv/woodieawards/2013. There are no limits to the number of times a person can vote, and voting ends at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Total votes arent displayed, leaving the station and the community in the dark on The Ways current standings.

After the votes are tallied, 15 stations are eliminated, and then there is a second voting period to narrow the list down to two winners. Last year the station made it into the top 10 but did not win. Mr. Laskaris didnt know how close they were to winning a Woodie. We like to think we were No. 3 last year, he said.

If the station wins, MTVU will send a camera crew to film the student-run stations staff receiving the award. Mr. Laskaris hopes the publicity of winning the award would help the station catch the attention of artists and prompt them to share their music with the station.

Mr. Laskaris described The Way as a unique, student-oriented station that puts a heavy emphasis on lesser known, independent artists. We love to support local artists, but we also like to support undiscovered artists from all over the world, Mr. Laskaris said. (Billboard) Top 40 stuff we try to shy away from.

The station is also genreless, and student DJs are free to play whatever music they think students and community members would enjoy.

Since were students ourselves, hopefully our tastes cater to the whole student body, Mr. Laskaris said. Our goals are to share the music we love with the students.

The Way also plays a number of student requests. The station played student requests throughout the day Thursday, for those who wanted to hear a special song played on Valentines Day.

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